TicketsBearcats Suffer First Loss Of Season
UC drops three-gamer to No. 22 LMU
Contact: Shawn Sell
9/11/2004
Maria Pongonis had 15 kills Saturday against Loyola Marymount. |
LOS ANGELES, Calif.---No. 22 Loyola Marymount overcame a Cincinnati hitting advantage to pick up a three-game win over the Bearcats on Saturday afternoon at the Furama Hotel Invitational, handing UC its first defeat of the 2004 season.
The second game was an epic battle that featured 19 ties and six lead changes and wasn?t decided until the Lions tallied a 35-33 win. LMU is now 5-1 on the year after wins of 30-24, 35-33, 30-26, while the Bearcats drop to 5-1.
Maria Pongonis and Julie DuPont led the Bearcats, totaling 15 and 14 kills, respectively. UC hit .256 for the match to .246 for the Lions. Three Lions players were in double figures in kills, led by Krista Houseman with 11. Dina Debernardi and Heather Hughes added 10 apiece for the winning Lions.
Loyola led for much of the first game, opening up an early cushion of as much as nine points. The Bearcats made a late run to get within five at 29-24 after back-to-back kills by DuPont. But a Cincinnati service error, its third of game one, ended the frame.
The second game was close throughout as neither team led by more than five points. UC coach Reed Sunahara called a timeout with his squad down 26-21 and the stoppage worked as UC got three straight points to force a Lions? timeout. LMU got to a 28-26 lead, only to commit consecutive errors to knot the score at 28. The Lions set up game point on a Jody Carlson kill, but committed a service error that made it 29-all. UC got a DuPont kill to set up game point, but Hughes answered with a kill of her own. The two players then traded kills again to make it 31-up.
The Lions took the advantage on a UC error, but the Bearcats quickly answered on a Myanna Hellsten kill. Hughes and Pongonis then traded kills to tie the score at 33. But the home team had one last answer, getting a kill by Debernardi and a block by Kelli Nerison and Nicole Oehlman to close out the battle. The game two stat sheet showed the Bearcats with a sizable .341 to .180 hitting advantage, despite the defeat.
The third and final game was close early, but once again saw Loyola Marymount pull ahead midway through, opening a lead of 18-11. But down seven, UC ripped off five straight points, two on Pongonis aces to get within two. The Bearcats were down four at 24-20, but got three points in a row to get within a point. Cincinnati then took the lead at 26-25 only to see LMU score the last five points of the match for the 30-26 victory.
Freshman Natalie Dossman continued her stellar defensive play with 11 digs, her fifth straight match with double figure digs. Noel Olson added 10, along with 44 assists, while DuPont also had 10. LMU?s Jacene Dimson led all player with 12 digs, while teammate Nerison had a match-best seven blocks. Rachel Torblaa paced the Cincinnati blocking with five.
The Bearcats will have little time to rest before their next match of the weekend. UC will square off with Miami (Fla.) in a match set to begin at 8 p.m. ET. The Hurricanes are 1-2 this year, after dropping matches to LMU and Washington State this weekend.